The
Leaderin Scanner and Shortwave
Communications

Monitoring Times Reviews

March 2004

A Side-By-Side
Comparison

By Bob
Grove

Several listening
enthusiasts have asked us our impression of a recent addition to our hobby’s
accessories – the Sounds Sweet speaker. No question about it, original-equipment
speakers inside the cabinets of our receivers and scanners leave a great deal to
be desired!

At our listening post, we
installed a toggle switch between the Sounds Sweet and a typical stereo
bookshelf speaker formerly sold by Grove (Grove SPK03: CSI/SPECO DMS-3P) and
connected it to an ICOM R8500 wide-frequency-coverage receiver. The Grove is a
small bookshelf unit measuring roughly 7 x 4 x 4 inches, while the Sounds Sweet
occupies a substantial 12 x 10 x 10 inches.

Let’s Listen

Tuning in a classical
music station, we weren’t surprised that the bass register was better in the
much-larger Sounds Sweet, and the sound had more “massiveness.” But the vibrancy
of upper-register harmonics of the strings was muffled compared to the Grove
unit. But the Sounds Sweet isn’t advertised for high-fidelity FM broadcast
reception, it’s intended for shortwave listening and VHF/UHF communications
monitoring.

The Sounds Sweet web site
is punctuated by advertising claims; let’s separate the facts from the hype: